Schlaglicht Israel 4-08

Schlaglicht Israel Nr. 4/08 Aktuelles aus israelischen Tageszeitungen 11. - 24. Februar 2008

1. Attentat auf Mughniya struggle against Israel, despite suffering from great limitations to his freedom of movement. […] Am 13.02.08 kam Imad Mughniyah, nach Hassan As testament to the relative isolation faced by Nasrallah Nr. 2 in der libanesischen Hisbollah, bei Nasrallah’s camp, only minor organizations and einem Attentat in Damaskus ums Leben. Der Top- various pariahs were quick to condemn the Terrorist, der für Anschläge gegen Israel, die USA assassination immediately after it was reported. […] und jüdische Einrichtungen mit vielen hundert A Lebanese source told Ynet: ‘Past experience Todesopfern verantwortlich sein soll, fungierte als shows that Hizbullah will certainly respond. The Militärchef der Hisbollah und stand in der westlichen question is not if, but rather, how, when, and in what Welt ganz oben auf den Fahndungslisten. Nach way. Logic dictates that the response will not seinem Tod kam es sofort zu Spekulationen über necessarily take place abroad, and that all options den Hintergrund seiner Ermordung. Die israelische are open.’ Regierung versteckte ihre Zufriedenheit mit dem So what’s in store? Starting today, Nasrallah will Anschlag nicht, dementierte jedoch eine Beteiligung. begin to provide the answers.” Allerdings vermittelten israelische Medien durchaus Roee Nahmias, JED 14.02.08 den Eindruck, dass israelische Geheimdienste ver- antwortlich sein könnten. Andererseits wurde auch The hit / Not merely revenge in Betracht gezogen, dass das Attentat von “Mughniyah's assassination - if it was carried out by amerikanischer Hand oder wegen interner Israel - strengthens the impression that Olmert is Streitigkeiten von der Hisbollah selbst ausgeführt unafraid of making complex defence decisions that worden sein könnte. involve considerable risks. […] In view of Anlässlich der Beerdigung von Mughniyah machte Mughniyah's status and the future risk he posed, it Nasrallah indes deutlich, dass er Israel die was absolutely justified to attack him.” Verantwortung für den Anschlag zuwies. Er drohte, Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff, HAA 14.02.08 den Kampf gegen Israel von nun an, auch außer- halb von Israel und dem Libanon zu führen. Far more than the killing of one terrorist Israelische Sicherheitskräfte verstärkten daraufhin “The killing of Imad Mughniyeh - whoever is die Schutzmaßnahmen für israelische Einrichtungen responsible - represents a significant achievement im Ausland. for Israel and its allies, and a tremendous blow to its most sworn enemies, in particular Hizbullah and Great leap backwards Iran's radical Islamist regime. […] “From an organization that has a state, a group that His sudden loss will undoubtedly set back for some manages a war against another country, an time the operational capabilities not only of Hizbullah organization that is attempting to change the political and the various terror groups with which he was rules of the game in the country where it operates – linked, but the Iranian and Syrian intelligence Hizbullah shifted to being a hunted, embarrassed, agencies as well. Still, some degree of perspective and stunned terror group. […] This assassination is called for here. Mughniyeh was not a charismatic comes on top of the growing headache suffered by political figure, but a shadowy underground leader Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. For and organizer, and such figures are always more than a year and a half this man has been in replaceable in the dark world in which he operated. hiding, determined to go on and firmly manage the Though his death was obviously a major setback for 1 Hizbullah, it will continue to carry on as before, as it Rattling the cage: When in doubt, bomb did in the wake of Israel's targeted killing in 1992 of “When I heard the news that Hizbullah's number one Hassan Nasrallah's predecessor, Abbas Musawi.” terrorist had been blown up in Damascus, I thought: Calev Ben-David, JPO 14.02.08. This wasn't Israel's doing. We've had a year-and-a- half of cease-fire with Hizbullah, nobody wants to No cause for celebration ruin that. We still haven't gotten over the last war in “Is the world a better place without Imad Lebanon, nobody's going to risk starting another one Mughniyah? The instinctive answer is ‘Yes.’ [...] But now, not when there's been 18 months of peace and a cost-and-benefit analysis could challenge the quiet on the northern border. validity of this response; if a car bomb explodes to- Well, imagine my surprise. With all the gloating and morrow next to a Jewish school in New Jersey […], back-slapping and winking going on in this country, I we'll be talking differently. On the other hand, if thought they were going to start passing out candy. Mughniyah's assassination prevented a few terror […] attacks that were in the works, then the answer is If Israel didn't kill Imad Mughniyeh last week, then obvious. It's all a matter of counting heads. this country is even more blind than I thought, There's at least one thing on which everyone because we seem to be doing everything we can to agreed: Mughniyah's elimination will not end terror, wave the assassination in Hizbullah's face, to taunt nor the war against it. […] them, to dare them to try to take revenge. So why all the joy, if that's the case? It's because I don't understand. Everybody knows they're going terror has been bound up with certain key figures, to hit back, or at least they're going to try as hard as while the causes behind the terror have been they can, and, based on experience, they probably ignored. […] will succeed sooner or later. […] But when peace agreements are perceived as con- It's too quiet around here. A tense quiet, as the cessions or as weakness […], there is nothing left tabloids say. The tension is eating us up. And the but to wage war against the symbols of terror, to surest, simplest way to stop worrying about whether eliminate the Hamas or Hezbollah leadership, to there's going to be a war or not is to start one.” point to a brilliant operational and intelligence Larry Derfner, JPO 21.02.08 victory, to count the victims of vengeance and to proceed to the next candidate.” Zvi Bar’el, HAA 17.02.08 2. Homosexuelle in der israelischen Gesellschaft The price they pay “Targeted killings have a major factor in their favor. Nach einer Entscheidung von Generalstaatsanwalt They work. Even if replacement leaders are even- Menachem Mazuz Anfang Februar dürfen tually found there is an inevitable disruption in the Homosexuelle die Kinder ihrer Partner adoptieren. operations of the network as well as a blow to Diskussionen zu diesem Thema waren vom morale. It is commonly believed that the select eli- Sozialministerium angefacht worden, das den minations helped put an end to the suicide bus bom- legalen Status homosexueller Partnerschaften mit bings. Doing nothing does, well, nothing. Worse Kindern klarstellen wollte. Die aktuelle Entscheidung than that: It shows the sort of weakness which in the ist Teil eines langjährigen rechtlichen Kampfes für Middle Eastern mind-set invites more attacks. […] die Gleichstellung von Homosexuellen, der 1994 In all the hype surrounding the initial reports of begann, als der Oberste Gerichtshof die Mughniyeh's death, I liked the quote I heard on Fluggesellschaft El Al anwies, dem männlichen Israel Radio that ‘even his bodyguards didn't know Partner eines Flugbegleiters Flugtickets zuzu- where he slept.’ He was too scared of being killed. gestehen. Mazuz gab in seiner Entscheidung auch And there is the added irony that a man who so an, dass Homosexuelle das Recht hätten, Kinder zu encouraged others to become martyrs was afraid to adoptieren, die nicht die Kinder ihrer Partner sind, die for the cause himself. das Kindeswohl stehe jedoch immer im The explosion echoed so loudly because it sent a Vordergrund. message to Hizbullah and Hamas leaders that they Die religiösen Parteien verurteilten die Entscheidung are not immune. Someone will always find out und reagierten – wie in der Vergangenheit – mit where they sleep.” Beleidigungen und Verwünschungen. Ein Liat Collins, JP 18.02.08 Knessetabgeordneter der religiösen Partei Shas 2 machte zudem auf sich aufmerksam, indem er call. I can only hope that the moderate members of Homosexuellen die Schuld an einem Erdbeben gab, the Haredi community I know who think differently das in der letzten Woche in Israel zu spüren war. will try to influence their leaders. Since liberals have made it clear time and again that Gay couples – Civil marriage we see the issue of gay rights as crucial for an open “The attorney general did well in not passing along society, I believe it is necessary to point out how the hot potato of same-sex couple adoption to the important gay-friendliness is from the standpoint of High Court of Justice again. Had he chosen this the economy. […] familiar and safe method, he would have spared The most consistent predictor for the attractiveness himself a great deal of criticism from religious of a city, country or company for creative people is - circles. But then the issue would have been on hold you may have guessed by now - gay-friendliness. for years at the expense of homosexual and lesbian There is some logic to this: Throughout history, couples as well as children who are candidates for tolerance has been the central factor in fostering adoption. […] creativity, and gay-friendliness turns out to be its Shas is not pleased, predictably, by the attorney strongest expression. […] general's decision, but it is hard to understand the Bnei Brak and Jerusalem are two of the poorest conditioning that causes them to react with slander cities in Israel, and both are, to put it mildly, not gay- and curses every time homosexuals and lesbians friendly. Since cultural openness cannot be dictated are mentioned. […] They allow themselves to by the state, I am not too optimistic about the express themselves in this way, inter alia, because possibility of influencing the economic future of of the absence of adequate response. This must not these and other culturally conservative cities except be condoned. Every statement of this sort must be through education and cultural change. Tolerance condemned and attacked in order to make it clear cannot be enforced, it must be embraced. [...]Israel that the reputation of homosexuals and lesbians is would pay a heavy price for reversing the trend not to be dragged through the mud.” toward gay-friendliness: The brain drain that draws HAA 12.02.08 Israel's talent abroad will turn into a tsunami, and without the creative class, Israel's economy and The new religious family culture will lose its vibrancy.” “With a delay customary for the religious world, Carlo Strenger, HAA 20.02.08 slowly but surely the religious family is also turning into a new, different, and alternative family. […] Give gays kosher stamp What used to be impossible (can you believe that up “The issue of religious homosexuals is a serious test until a few years ago, there were no divorces case for leaders of the so-called God-fearing public. “among us”?) is today still a complex challenge, but With the exception of very few people, the leaders of tomorrow nobody will remember that once upon a this community fail time and again in handling this time there used to be a religious problem to create a question. The miserable anti-gay expressions single parent or same sex family. […] uttered by Orthodox Knesset members are Our challenge, as a religious society, as parents, as especially concerning, and in fact horrifying. […] educators, and as human beings, is to adapt to this I believe that somewhere there is a Jewish law reality. Not to be scared of it, not to try and scare our solution. […] Here I expect the rabbis to resolve this children, not to utilize our automatic negative issue once and for all, and preferably not in the judgment, and mostly not to lower God to primitive Iranian way. I’m not talking about lifting prohibitions, resolutions such as ‘if God had wanted single parent but rather, about social acceptance. The Jews are a or same sex families, he would not enable only a creative people, so I am certain that rabbis will be man and a woman to create a child together.’” able to find a patent that would make homosexuals Yael Mishali, JPO 07.02.08 kosher too.” Asaf Wohl, JED 21.02.08 Gay-friendliness is not only about values “I am tempted to call on the ultra-Orthodox leadership to moderate its extremely offensive tone toward the gay-lesbian community - if only for the sake of civilized coexistence. But unfortunately I am not very optimistic about the effectiveness of such a 3 3. Sderot residents a sense of mission, they may have found the fortitude to cope with the military threat. But in a Auch in den letzten beiden Wochen setzte sich der reality of soup kitchens, closing factories, fleeing Beschuss durch Kassam-Raketen aus dem residents, growing unemployment, economic Gazastreifen auf die israelische Stadt Sderot und distress and a bleak future, it is doubtful whether die umliegenden Gebiete fort. Während die Armee stopping the fire would bring joy to their lives.” begrenzte Operationen im Gazastreifen durchführte Daniel Ben-Simon, HAA 12.02.08 und die Regierung versprach, 3600 Häuser in der betroffenen Gegend mit Schutzwänden auszu- Lügnerische Behauptungen der Linken statten, protestierten Einwohner von Sderot in Tel “Ein schwieriges Problem bei diesen Diskussionen Aviv und Jerusalem. Der Bürgermeister der Stadt stellen die lügnerischen Behauptungen der Linken gab schließlich an, auch zu Gesprächen mit der dar. [...] Hier einige Beispiele: Hamas bereit zu sein, um den Beschuss ‘Und als wir in Gaza saßen, hat man da etwa nicht einzustellen. Kassam-Raketen geschossen?’ – Nein, hat man nicht! [...] Aus Gaza sind wir nämlich im Jahr 1994 A farewell to idignation abgezogen, sollte jemand das vergessen haben. “Something is wrong - terribly, terribly wrong - with Vor 1994 wurden aber keine Kassam-Raketen how accustomed we have become to the violence abgeschossen. [...] being inflicted upon the southern part of the country Vor der Loslösung hatte Israel nur etwa 10% des by the Palestinians. It is almost as if we have said Gaza-Streifens unter Kontrolle. Von den Stellen aus, farewell to our sense of indignation, replacing it an denen wir uns befanden, in Gush Katif und im instead with static indifference. […] Some might Norden, wurden keine Rakten und keine view this as a healthy approach, but I beg to differ. Mörsergranaten abgeschossen. ‘Was werden wir The fact is that we as a society have become numb tun, wenn sie nach einer Rückeroberung weiter to the cry of Sderot and the south. The outrage we Raketen schießen?’ Es gibt keinen Grund, warum should all be feeling over the relentless rocket so etwas geschehen sollte. Von den Stellen, an attacks has failed to materialize, and the denen die Armee stationiert ist, wird be- government exploits this to avoid taking action. […] wiesenermaßen nicht geschossen.“ Comfortably ensconced in our homes, we all think it HZO 13.02.08 couldn't possibly happen to us. The headlines from the south seem taken from some far away place, off in the distance. After all, the government would HAA = Haaretz never abandon us, would it? But if we accept our HZO = Ha Tzofe leaders' decision to snub Sderot, abandon Ashkelon JED = Jedioth Ahronoth and neglect Netiv Ha'asara, then we are essentially JPO = Jerusalem Post lining ourselves up to become potential prey too.” MAA = Maariv Michael Freud, JPO 12.02.08 Die Artikel aus HZO und MAA wurden dem Medienspiegel der Deutschen Botschaft Israel The Israel they don’t belong to entnommen. “The people of Sderot and the South feel that had this happened somewhere else, in the central Veröffentlicht am: 26. Februar 2008 region, for example, the country's energies would have burst forth just to solve the problem. Nothing Verantwortlich: can persuade the residents of the South that this is Hermann Bünz, an unsolvable military or political problem. Those Leiter der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Israel demonstrators in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, whose parents were sent in the middle of the night to settle Redaktion: the desert in the '50s, are convinced that they are Maike Ziesemer doomed to this incessant hell just because they are seen as second- and third-grade citizens. […] Anita Haviv The failure to stop the Qassam rockets is to a large Homepage: www.fes.org.il extent a metaphor for Israel's incompetence Email: [email protected] regarding the southern communities. Had their 4